Madam, - Diana Beale's extensive arts feature in your edition of August 23rd laments the fact that interest in George Russell's paintings dwindled after his death in 1935. Ms Beale, who is researching a book on Russell (AE), the painter, expresses the hope that "AE's paintings and his place in Irish art \ be reassessed and re-established".
While a book on AE's paintings is very welcome and long overdue, some omissions from Ms Beale's article require correction. I, at the Oriel gallery, have mounted five major solo AE exhibitions since I established the Oriel in 1968 to promote the then neglected genre of Irish visual art. My gallery has provided Ms Beale with extensive archival material for her research, incorporating these facts.
My inaugural exhibition upon opening the Oriel Gallery was a joint exhibition of paintings by George Russell and Percy French which I had collected and rescued from neglect at various auctions I had attended as an antiques dealer.
My next major solo George Russell exhibition at the Oriel was in 1975, featuring 36 paintings. I organised it in conjunction with the unveiling of a memorial plaque to AE by the IAOS. Maureen Russell, AE's granddaughter, was heavily involved in the exhibition and a regular visitor to the Oriel. This exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue and, if I may say so, a concise but insightful foreword.
The exhibition was extensively and favourably reviewed (by Brian Fallon in The Irish Times and the late Monk Gibbon in that eloquent publication The Hibernian).
The Oriel held another George Russell solo show in 1985. Then, in 1989, to mark the Oriel's 21st anniversary, I celebrated the occasion with yet another George Russell show featuring 34 paintings and again produced a fine catalogue, copies of which are still available in the gallery and from the National Gallery bookshop. All these exhibitions at the Oriel were extensively reviewed in the mainstream media.
Besides the aforementioned five major solo shows, George Russell has featured in many group shows at the Oriel, and there is an extensive essay on AE in my main publication, 100 Years of Irish Art, a copy of which has also been made available to Ms Beale. The Oriel Gallery continues to stock top-quality AE paintings, which are increasingly difficult to come by.
Furthermore, in the chronology to my 1989 catalogue, of which Ms Beale has a copy, I record clearly that in the year of AE's death, 1935, a memorial exhibition was mounted at the Egan gallery on St Stephen's Green, to which The Irish Times devoted its entire front page. Ms Beale fails to note this fact also in her article.
The 70th anniversary of AE's death will fall in July 2005 and the occasion will be suitably marked by a major retrospective exhibition at the Oriel Gallery. - Yours, etc.,
OLIVER J. NULTY, Oriel Gallery, Clare Street, Dublin 2.